"The role of women is changing from the traditional maiden, mother, crone to a time where any woman can be whatever it is she wants to be. A Goddess doesn’t have to be a young woman, or a mother, and she can age as gracefully (or disgracefully) as she wishes. It’s about women having choice; it’s about women feeling beautiful, powerful, confident and sensual in their own skins."

The internet has been awash with blogs, Instagram images and articles about being a Goddess, yet, unless you have experienced it, many women do not know what a Goddess is, or indeed, how to be one. And what on Earth does it mean to be Empowered? In the interests of full disclosure, this article will be my truth about what being an Empowered Goddess means to me.

For many years, I was plagued with self-esteem issues and it wasn’t until I did an online course with Leyolah Antara at Kundalini Dance that I felt the pulsing of energy that is the feminine energy of the Goddess that I fully understood the sensation of being an Empowered Goddess. I guess for me, I had to experience it to understand its power.

I could start by writing about how women were revered in many ancient cultures (and some modern ones), however, I think that it will detract from the issue. Such powerful women as the goddesses of early Pagan (Diana, Hretha), Hindu (Kali), Sumerian (Ishtar, Ereshkigal), Egyptian (Isis), Norse (Freyr, Bil), Irish (Dana, Brigid) and Greek (Aphrodite, Artemis) societies, not to mention those from China, Africa and the Americas as well as Indigenous ones and those in the Biblical stories, such as the divine Mary Magdalene.

I could talk about the other terms like embodied woman and Shakti that are used interchangeably about the Goddess in the early 21st Century but for the ease of the article, let’s just stick with the Goddess. Historically, women were revered as they carried children and the burden of both life and death through the process of childbirth. Thankfully, maternal deaths are decreasing and less women are dying in this important stage of life, and more interestingly, many women are choosing not to have babies. The role of women is changing from the traditional maiden, mother, crone to a time where any woman can be whatever it is she wants to be. A Goddess doesn’t have to be a young woman, or a mother, and she can age as gracefully (or disgracefully) as she wishes. It’s about women having choice; it’s about women feeling beautiful, powerful, confident and sensual in their own skins.

Women have only had the right to vote for about 100 years and the Goddess has risen historically in periods when misogyny was at its worst, such as when the Inquisition tortured and killed thousands of men and women who stood up to the church. Women who rode “cowboy” were considered witches (I kid you not!) (Stay tuned for my first novel, Matilda, based on this crazy misogynist culture in 2018). The Goddess brings us back to balance when the masculine energies become too dominant and unfortunately, we need the Goddess energy now more than ever.

Women are tired of being told what we can and can’t do by men and the institutions that run the world. We are all powerful, we know it and men know it and when they see us in our full power, they know who really wields power; and it’s not men or women, it’s a balance between the two.

The word “empower” means to “to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means.” By its definition alone, being empowered means that we give permission to ourselves to feel the power of ourselves. By extension, an empowered person also aids and empowers other people, particularly women, ethnic minorities and those who are in some way disenfranchised by society. Putting others down, does not empower the self, and it certainly does not empower others.

An Empowered Goddess is not the antithesis of men, she lifts up the men in her life as much as she lifts the women and herself. It doesn’t have to be duality; that is dominance by men OR women, it’s about balance. The more the Empowered Goddess taps into her inner self, the more that she can empower others to be the very essence of who they are, raising us all up in a collective empowerment.

To me a Goddess is a woman who has embraced and accepted all of who she is, that is, her darkness and her light. We all have the capabilities to be a great healer or leader or indeed someone who is capable of murder, given the right scenario. A Goddess sees and acknowledges those parts of herself that reflect both the primitive parts of humanity and the full goodness of it.

A Goddess is a woman who has done a lot of self-reflection and owns all of those parts of herself that at times she doesn’t like and at times she loves. When she looks into a mirror a Goddess will sometimes see a frightened little girl, or a vulnerable woman, other times she will see a wild woman ready for anything and other times a sensual, sweet seductress.

A Goddess is a woman who is assured in her sexuality; she has no guilt or anxiety around masturbation or sex and honours each and every lover with every ounce of her being. She can see her lovers’ vulnerabilities and knows just when to support him/her and lift them up. She is able to walk away if it’s not bringing her satisfaction, yet she is happy in the moment, knowing that she is exactly where she is meant to be.

She is not afraid of men, in-fact, she knows just the right ways to disarm or seduce a man should it please her. This is not something that she shows off, but if she wants someone or something, she will get it, she knows of her power to manifest her desires in a way which is loving but not manipulative. An Empowered Goddess feels into her body and she knows it, inside and out. It’s a feeling of being connected to something greater than all of us; a flow of femininity if you like that completely honours and respects the masculine and feminine balance of life.

Note: In 2015, I created tools to help people become self-empowered; Chakra Cards. Unlike traditional tarot and other divination tools, these tap into our intuitive self and allow people to clear all that no longer serves for them and help them to become an empowered Goddess or God with the power of looking within. Chakra Cards Empower yourself; look within.

Last month when I was sharing my blog on the amazing Rachel Burrows-Davies, I accidently wrote the word “inspirited”. It was in those nanoseconds that I realised that I had stumbled across (and probably invented) a most spectacular word.

Inspiriting (verb): an inspirational action which is driven by spirit; to let spirit live through the individual.

To live an inspirited life means that you are living and are driven by the spirit. It is not the ego or external forces driving you or your actions, but moment to moment existence; the calling within you, the vibrating, pulsing energy of all of life that drives through you.

What it means to live an inspiriting life:

To let go of control of outcomes and expectations, just let go. Another way of thinking of this is to stop over-analysing!

To feel the life-force pulsing through you, to feel connected to the divine energy in every moment, not just in meditation.

To say “yes” to everything that feels good. Everything. Spirit is bringing it to you, the experience is what you need at this time. Face that fear and say yes. Of course at any point in the process, you can say no to the things that come into your sphere, but where is the joy in that?

Follow your bliss. Do what makes you happy. If it doesn’t bring out the love and joy in you, then it’s not raising you up.

Be selfish. Your responsibility to you is you. Your children/spouse/family have responsibilities to themselves, your responsibility is to be the most authentic you that you can be.

Be honest with yourself, stop denying what you know in your heart to be true.

Love what you are doing and do what you love.

I am being propelled ever upwards and forwards by being in the moment and taking action when I’m called by that nudge from within and it’s paying off; I’m happier and more content with my life and I’ve stopped “seeking”, I’m living from an authentic space and I feel so very grateful and empowered.

I quit my teaching job because it felt so wrong and I was literally dragging myself out of bed and forcing myself to drive the 35 minutes to a place I couldn’t stand to be. Yet I persisted with it for nine months because I was under the illusion that I couldn’t survive financially without it, but what happened was that I was so overcome with offers of work that I couldn’t fit them all in in one day. I am so flat out all day every day, completely engaged in things that I love to do and I couldn’t be happier.

What I have learned is that if you feel a “calling” or an inner nudging, don’t ignore it, follow your intuition/instinct. Make a decision and the universe will respond by helping you. Your purpose in life is not to work in a job you despise until you retire and then start living out your dreams in your 60s! It is to live your dreams now, by following your calling. If something feels good, or even too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true and YOU ABSOLUTELY DESERVE it, you are being offered an amazing gift, why would you say “no”?!

The world is changing at a rapid rate and the idea of staying in a relationship, job, house and so on until it reaches a disastrous end is not doing you, or the planet any favours. The world is calling to be true to yourself, stand strong in who you are and trust that inner nudging that you feel, you know it is the right decision because you will feel the joy in your heart.